SACRAMENTO -- The leaders behind California's $69 billion bullet train face a stark choice Thursday: Should they save a hundred million dollars or more by hiring a contractor with the poorest qualifications or pick a more expensive firm they think would do a better job?

Bullet train critics say the state will pay more in the long run by hiring a Southern California firm that came in with the lowest bid but has a history of cost overruns.

But project leaders, who already altered the bidding rules to give an edge to the cheapest developers, are under intense pressure to save money right now and say the firm they are recommending still meets their standards for quality. The bullet train is struggling to move forward amid sharp criticism that largely centers on the rail line's record price tag, which has doubled since voters approved the plan in 2008.

Artist's rendering: High-speed train in the Transbay Terminal. (NC3D)

"I think after the last five years you have a ton of politicians, activists and media outlets screaming about the cost of high-speed rail -- of course they're going to pick based on price," said Robert Cruickshank, who runs a popular high-speed rail blog supportive of the project.

The seven-member California High-Speed Rail Authority Board, meeting in Sacramento on Thursday morning, is expected to pick a consortium led by Sylmar-based Tutor Perini to build the first 29-mile construction project in the Central Valley, now set to break ground in late summer. The developer, recommended by rail authority and Caltrans executives, offered a bid of $985 million, the cheapest by a margin of about $100 million among five finalists.

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The details of the technical bids have not been released, but the rail authority says it graded on a curve based on each developer's experience, its ability to meet construction schedules and budgets, and ability to come up with innovative solutions to improving the state's plans.

The construction job includes no tracks but lays the physical groundwork for the first $6 billion, 130-mile stretch of rail between Merced and Bakersfield.

Tutor Perini officials did not respond to requests for comment. CEO Ron Tutor has previously used harsh and sometimes obscene language to deny claims of cost overruns.

Jeff Morales, the rail authority's CEO, said Tutor Perini promised to finish the plan six months ahead of the agency's February 2018 target date for completion, an appealing offer because officials have already seen their groundbreaking pushed back a year.

Rail officials have said that bashing Tutor Perini for scoring the worst technical grade among five "world-class" finalists is like criticizing the player in the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the worst batting average or calling the Mensa member with the lowest IQ "dumb."

"One of them is going to have the lowest score," Morales said. "But all five were judged to be clearly capable of performing the work. There is no issue there at all."

But critics say the rail authority is gambling by selecting Tutor Perini, which has had large cost overruns building projects such as the BART extension to San Francisco International Airport, the Los Angeles subway and an Oakland Coliseum retrofit. An analysis last year by the Bay Citizen news organization found the firm has collectively gone over budget by $765 million -- 40 percent -- while building 11 major Bay Area projects since 2000.

"Low bid is not low cost," said Elizabeth Alexis of Palo Alto, a bullet train critic with Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design. "If you've agreed to do Tutor's D+ project and you want a C- project, get your checkbook out."

After the Legislature narrowly approved the first section of track in July amid concerns over the project's high cost, the rail authority in August altered the bidding rules for the first phase. Instead of narrowing the finalists to the three firms that submitted the best-quality proposals, as officials had previously planned, they allowed all five finalists to be eligible as long as they passed a basic technical test.

Then, in December, the rail authority told bidders they needed only to include a two-year "warranty" instead of previous bid rules requiring firms to cover their work for five years.

Tutor Perini's group, which also includes Pasadena-based Parsons and Texas-based Zachry, submitted a bid in January along with four other finalists. Cost amounted to 70 percent of each company's overall score, and Tutor Perini's $985 million bid beat the state's initial $1.2 billion estimate and the four other developers' proposals, which ranged from $1.09 billion to $1.54 billion. Tutor Perini's technical score was 68.5 percent while the four competitors averaged 80 percent. The contract includes a $53 million contingency to cover potential cost overruns and a $60,000-a-day penalty for finishing the job late.

Morales noted that officials placed a high weight on cost in this first contract because it's one of the simpler parts of the bullet train plan, for which officials hope to secure an additional $55 billion to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2029.

But Tutor, a major political donor who has financially supported Gov. Jerry Brown and many other politicians, has been nearly outlawed in the past from doing business in some cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, after being accused of piling on extra bills during construction.

"After lowballing it they make it up in change orders," said Kevin Williams, a retired San Francisco contract compliance officer who worked with Tutor on projects in the 1990s.